Okay, so I know it sounds dumb, but I need some endorphins! I have not trained in a week.
I was told last week that I have mono and walking pneumonia. I feel run down, but not as badly as you would think. Has anybody trained with either of these? Did you feel better or worse? I really just want to run, but do not want to hurt my spleen.
I was told last week that I have mono and walking phenomena.
It’s phenomenon 
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I got mono a few years ago and coudl not contemplate walking across the room let alone running. I would say that you could really do yourself some harm trying to pushg your body that is already fighting a a highly agressive virus. I was actually hospitalized when I got it and let me tll you how fun that was. Anyway you may not feel right for over a month so get used to it.
Do NOT train with mono. It’s a good way to set yourself up for chronic epstein-barr (ask Monty about that one) or, worst case, if you crashed on your bike or some sort of impact, you could rupture your spleen (which generally kills you). I got mono in college, and I basically was forbidden from exercising at all for a month.
Don’t.
I ended up with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome(POTS) last Fall. I will never know what caused it for sure, but I had mono before that and trained and raced harder than ever before in 2008, then was stopped dead in my tracks by this.
“Causes:
The causes of POTS are not fully known… Others develop POTS after a viral or bacterial infection such as mononucleosis or pneumonia. Some patients develop symptoms after experiencing some sort of trauma such as a car accident or injury…”
I wouldn’t and would be surprised if you could.
I had walking pneumonia in college and could barely get across the room. After a week or two of bed rest, I felt fine and convinced my doctor to let me out and do stuff. Big mistake and all I did was walk across campus and up a flight of stairs to class.
I was out of commission for about a month.
Seems to be going around. I’ve had mono the past couple weeks too. Yesterday was the first time I really felt like doing anything (well, I felt like I wanted to go ride every day but couldn’t get up the strength to actually go do it). I managed a whopping 500yds swim 
Everything I have heard and read is that rest rest rest rest rest is by far the best thing you can do for yourself. Definitely do not overdo it when you come back.
The spleen is a huge issue with mono. I was advised no contact sports for at least 6-8 weeks after. I’m not sure if running counts as contact, but I’ll try and avoid it for as long as possible. Probably wise to stop at the first sign of pain.
Do as little as possible and let your body recover.
Last year I got sick late Feb with 2 weeks to go in my buildup for a mid March Marathon. I had nasty flu like symptoms. Took a week off, then tried to do one easy week with a long run at the end before my taper. My legs felt great but I ran for about 8 miles then steadily slowed down until I called my wife about 12 miles into the run to come get me as I was completely gassed.
Took the next 10 days to rest, ran the marathon and felt ok up to mile 14, where I still had legs but completely ran out of energy. I still felt sickly and not 100%. Nothing like running a 1:3x first half and 2 plus hour second.
The next several months were more of the same. I never felt 100% but as soon as I felt a little better I’d go train. I did a half at the end of June and I felt lousy going into it and it was a disaster. I was coughing all the time, congested etc…Finally the Monday after my wife made me go to the doctor, he tells me I have two ear infections, sinus infection and mild case of walking pneumonia. Puts me on all kinds of antibiotics and tells me he will get me back on my feet and feeling better and a few weeks, but no exercise. I recount the events of the last 3 months culminating with having done a HIM the day before and he looks at me like I"m nuts, and orders me to do nothing for at least 2 weeks.
I tried to rest, gave it a good two weeks, then started training for IMWI. But even up to IMWI I never felt 100%, was always run down, had 3-4 mild colds in that time frame, was always fighting something etc…Finally after Wisconsin took 4 weeks off 100%, didn’t do a damn thing, and finally started to feel better and eased back into training. It was amazing how much better I felt when I could breath, wasn’t congested, wasn’t coughing all the time and didn’t feel run down constantly.
Looking back in retrospect I pretty much hosed my whole season last year by trying to push through something like this in the spring and never fully recovering, so if it heppened again I would make rest and recovery my immediate goal. But yes, it does suck to not be ‘out there’ doing something ,but look at my example and would you rather lose a few weeks or months?
Rest up and recover.
No training. Do yoga instead. It makes me feel better.
It’s phenomenon
Yeah, the phenomeon is the stupid things triathletes do or think about doing.
The folks on ST don’t agree on much, but not sure anyone will argue with me when I say that what you want to do is a really, really, really bad idea.
And if you feel like you can go for a run with Mono and walking pneumonia, I don’t think you have felt the worst of it yet.
MY son a college swimmer was just diagnosed with mono. Any advice from the 20- something crowd about 1) recovery time 2) non drug treatment.
I am a doctor so please don’t suggest anything foolish or quackery- just wondering if there are some alternative options that can help recover.
I’m sorry you’re ill. I also empathize with the lack of endorphins. I had pneumonia last winter.
That said, training with either of those illnesses is NOT an option.
Okay, so I know it sounds dumb, but I need some endorphins!
Got any friends with good video game systems? Or maybe this would be a good time to watch some scary movies.
Otherwise, if you want to make productive use of your time as far as racing is concerned, then spend your week doing all of the bike maintenance that you’ve been putting off. Re-cable everything, true your wheels, lube the pedals, grease your seatpost (if you ride a metal bike) . . . you get the idea.
If you don’t know how to do this sort of stuff, you now have an ideal opportunity to learn.
Patience and rest. Having coached a couple diff. high school boys who got mono at diff. times, it goes something like this: Rest/Do nothing for several weeks. Ask your doc. Maybe walk, stretch, super light circuits but ZERO stuff that is impact (or weights) and ZERO high heart rate (75% max).
After a time (2-3 months), they were able to run lots of miles at 8-10 min. miles and feel good, but it shot their racing for months. Any attempt at 6-min. pace and it was hugely painful (Mostly the spleen). It takes months to get through/recover, but you will recover. The two I am thinking of did eventually PR in XC (low16) & track (4:35 mile), but 6-9 months after mono, not 3 months after. Hang in there!
Okay, so I know it sounds dumb, but I need some endorphins!
Got any friends with good video game systems? Or maybe this would be a good time to watch some scary movies.
Otherwise, if you want to make productive use of your time as far as racing is concerned, then spend your week doing all of the bike maintenance that you’ve been putting off. Re-cable everything, true your wheels, lube the pedals, grease your seatpost (if you ride a metal bike) . . . you get the idea.
If you don’t know how to do this sort of stuff, you now have an ideal opportunity to learn.
I agree with this Video Games are a good way to get your endorphins going when you are sick.
And to echo everyone else, DO NOT train with pneumonia and mono…
x2 I trained with it, got CFS and was in bed for the larger part of 9 months. Don’t F with epstein-barr.
Thanks for the comments
The common story I hear is
- got mono
- like sucks , felt terrible
- 2-3 weeks later- feeling better…start exercising
- no endurance no strength
- keep testing the limits
- long recovery
- wish I had rested more ( in retrospect)
Mark
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Sucks that you’ve got 'em both. My senior year of high school, I got mono. My head was so stuffed up the first week that my lips were bleeding from being so chapped. About a week later, I got hit with pneumonia… I was in the hospital for three days. I was able to stand for about ten minutes at a time when they released me. It took about four weeks to get to the point of running again.
Sucks that you’ve got 'em both.
Anything mixed with mono makes them both pretty deadly. Yep, deadly. Your spleen helps to filter crap from your body, and mono wreaks havoc on your spleen. Your body has a harder time fighting other infections off then. As a result, the pneumonia lasts longer and gets worse than it would have (or you may not have gotten pneumonia at all). I had mono and salmonella at the same time, put me in the hospital for 13 days, and I have NO recollection of any of that time. I was told that the doctor informed my parents I may not make it. Scary shit. Don’t mess with mono, and if you have a secondary infection, do what you can to help things along. Do NOT push it too early.